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Friday, February 1, 2013

A night of sloppy plays and mistakes ended for the Devils just that way tonight. A misplay of the puck by goaltender Martin Brodeur behind the net led to a scramble in front and eventually Brad Boyes’ power-play goal 2:01 into overtime for a 5-4 Islanders’ victory at Prudential Center.

The Devils came back from deficits of 2-0, 3-2 and 4-3 to force their fourth consecutive overtime game, but lost their third in a row. At 3-0-3, they still have not lost in regulation, but the way they played tonight against and Islanders’ team that has demonstrated it can capitalize on mistakes is reason for concern.

“We didn’t deserve to win. We didn’t play well enough to win,” Devils coach Pete DeBoer said. “We lost the special teams battles. We lost the faceoff battle. I said this before: You get what you deserve in this game. We had some opportunities to win, but we didn’t play well enough to earn two points.”

That the Islanders were 3-for-4 on the power play was a big reason why the Devils were playing from behind all night. And there were some bad breaks such as Mark Streit’s goal that put the Isles up 4-3 11:32 into the third period, which deflected in off defenseman Adam Larsson.

But, the breaks often go the way of the team that deserves them.

“We’re a good team killing penalties,” Brodeur said. “There’s no reason why we had to give up that many goals. The second goal, I kind of misread it. I thought my defenseman was going to touch it, so I canceled the icing and they got in the zone and they stayed there and they scored off a pass. The same thing on the first goal. (Boyes) gets a great chance, he goes to shoot, (Ilya Kovalchuk) slashes him and it goes right to Tavares and open net.

“It was just bad luck we had today, but we created our bad luck to a certain extent also.”

The bad luck on Boyes’ winning goal started after a Streit pass from the right point hopped over John Tavares’ stick and went behind the net. Brodeur went back to there to play it and turned it back over to Tavares.

“I thought I made the right decision to play the puck back there and I don’t know if the puck bobbled or somebody hit my stick,” Brodeur said. “After that it was a free for all. Sal almost had it too. It was just one of those plays that I thought I made the right decision by going there because I had plenty of time, but it kind of backfired a bit on me.”

Brodeur actually got back in front in time to stop Tavares’ shot from the bottom of the right circle, but the rebound went back to Tavares, who passed to Frans Nielson in the slot.

Salvador made one save in the crease, Frans Nielsen’s backhand with his leg, but could not stop Boyes’ rebound effort.

“The puck went behind the net and we went there and Tavares got it and kind of just spun and threw it towards the middle of the net,” Salvador said. “Then, it was just a scramble. Marty went down to cover and I think it got poked and then it just went behind him. I tried to keep it out and the first one hit me and the second one they put in the rebound.”

DeBoer said he had no problem with Brodeur going behind the net to play the puck in that situation.

“Any time Marty handles the puck I have a pretty good comfort level,” he said.

There were definitely some positives for the Devils this game, particularly with the way they battled back repeatedly to tie it. But, as DeBoer pointed out, they played into the Isles’ hands with some of the mistakes they made and paid for it.

“We knew going in they’re a team that can score if you give them opportunities and they have a great power play. We fell into that trap. We gave them some opportunities and we gave them power plays. Like I said, you get what you deserve. You go in eyes wide open and we still got burned.”

“When we played our game, we got rewarded, but the Islanders where they’re the best is turnovers and sloppy plays and they capitalized,” Salvador said. “It seemed like every time we made a bad play, they found a way to capitalize. That’s where they’re strengths are. But I think we saw when we got the puck in deep and got our forecheck going, we were really effective.

DeBoer admitted that losing twice in overtime and once in a shootout in their last three games can be frustrating, but only when you play well enough to win.

“It’s frustrating when you deserve two and you don’t get them,” he said. “It’s not when you don’t feel you did. I thought it was a just result. I didn’t think we were awful. I thought we showed some resiliency. Our third and fourth lines got on the board. We battled back from a 2-0 deficit. We did some good thing. I thought we deserved a point, but it’s not frustrating because I don’t think we deserved two.”

The Devils try to regroup with a practice Friday afternoon before flying to Pittsburgh to face the Penguins Saturday afternoon. Then, they return to Nassau Coliseum – where they won 2-1 on opening night – face the Islanders again Sunday afternoon.

“We’re not happy about the way we played today, but we got a point and we have to move on,” Brodeur said. “We have two big games this weekend. There’s nothing to dwell on right now. We have to get back to work tomorrow. Finally, we’re going to have a practice. It was a week we didn’t have a chance to practice because we were playing and traveling. We’ll do that tomorrow and get back at it Saturday afternoon.”

The Devils (3-0-3) now find themselves tied with the Islanders (4-2-1) atop the Atlantic Division with nine points.

“We haven’t lost a game in regulation yet,” DeBoer said. “It’s a 30-team league and I think there’s only three or four of us that can claim that. So, it’s not perfect, but we’re chipping away and that’s what you have to do. This season is going to be a grind and there’s going to be all kinds of different levels of hockey and you’ve just got to find a way to stick with it and scrape out points and I think that’s what we we’re doing.”

***Salvador was accidentally hit in the face with Boyes' stick after Boyes scored the winning goal, but said he was fine after the game.

About

TOM GULITTI has covered the New Jersey Devils for The Record since 2002. Prior to that, he covered the New York Rangers for four years. Gulitti joined The Record in 1998 after six years at The North Jersey Herald News. He graduated from Binghamton University in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts in Rhetoric-Literature.